Cancer, which is also referred to as a tumor, means groups of abnormal cells which are generated by unlimitedly continued fragmentation and proliferation of cells, originating from destruction of the balance between cell division and apoptosis by a variety of causes. In general, cancers are expressed in various parts of the body more than 100 parts, including organs, white blood cells, bones, lymph nodes, etc, and then are developed into severe symptom through infiltration into the surrounding tissue and transition to a different organ. The causes of cancer include environmental or external factors such as the chemical, viral, bacterial, ionizing radiation and so on and internal factors such as congenital gene mutations and so on. Interest in the relation between chronic inflammation and cancer has been recently newly appeared and many data demonstrating the relation between the chronic inflammation and cancer has been reported. Infection and chronic inflammation occupy 25% of all cancer cause and it has been known that cancer risk is much higher in patients having chronic inflammation and ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species)-associated diseases. It is speculated that a variety of mediators that regulate the inflammatory response, that is, cytokine, free-radical, growth factor, etc. induce genetic, epigenetic changes such as mutations in tumor suppressor genes, DNA methylation, post-transcriptional modification, etc., change the route essential for maintaining cell homeostasis, and further generate and develop cancer.
If cancers are found in the initial, medical treatment such as radiation therapy or chemotherapy etc can be applied to the patients. However, the side effect of the medical treatment becomes a big problem. If cancers are found in the terminal or in the metastasis state, the patients should dwell in life-limiting condition without special treatment. Therefore, the research has been conducted for developing anti-cancer agent or cancer metastasis inhibitor having less side effect and great efficacy from low-toxic natural products, as a new approach for the cancer treatment. It had been found that the treatment originating in the natural products reduces the side effect of the suppression of hematopoiesis and immune function which is often observed in chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
EC-18, as a kind of monoacetyldiglyceride compounds, was separated or extracted from the natural deer antler. It is known that EC-18 increases survivability ratio of animals in sepsis animal model experiment using cecal-ligation-puncture, and shows no-toxicity in GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) toxicity test. However, the effect of monoacetyldiacylglycerol compounds including EC-18 is not known or disclosed in the blood cancer or cancer metastasis. Thus the present inventors aimed to find a compound derived from natural products or a novel compound for the inhibitor of blood cancer or cancer metastasis and found that the monoacetyldiacylglycerol compound inhibits IL-4 secretion and STAT-6 activation to destroy micro-environment for the growth of the cancer tissue and can be used to prevent or treat blood cancer or inhibit cancer metastasis.